Is Clean Eating a Myth? Chrissy Teigen Sparks a Twitter Health Debate

Chrissy Teigen has made a career out of her playful approach to food. Her Cravings cookbook, which launched earlier this year, is touted as a collection of realistic recipes for people who love every kind of dish from fried chicken to Brussels sprouts. So why has Teigen become the center of a dieting controversy? On Friday, the model and new mother responded to a fan’s Tweet about her avoidance of the term “diet” saying, “I dunno. I’ve always had an issue with the word diet. I like ‘eating light’ or clean eating . . . I dunno why!” As straightforwardly innocent as her reply seems, it incited a fully-fledged Twitter war over the definitions of the terms “diet” and “clean,” the difference between them, if any, and which camp Teigen belongs to, whether she likes it or not.

Teigen’s reticence to align herself with the term “diet” is understandable. Though the word merely refers to the food that a person eats regularly—vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean, and American could be considered diets—it has become culturally synonymous in some circles with the restriction of calories as a means for weight loss. “Clean eating” also took its fair share of hits in the feud—called out for being elitist, and, perhaps worst of all, a blanket statement that means absolutely nothing, or, as one person put it, a “myth.” But, according to nutritionist Mikaela Reuben, the term “clean” has a very clear translation and use, and embraces a remarkably democratic approach.

“Clean eating is a diet where you understand what you’re putting in your body,” Ruben says of consuming bread, butter, cheese, and beyond that contain only what they naturally should (i.e. organic milk or a natural yeast starter) and nothing they shouldn’t (for example, artificial hormones in meat, or chemical stabilizers that you can’t pronounce). “My definition of [the term] is chemical-free, nothing refined,” she says of a commitment to consuming and preparing simple foods like fruits and vegetables that are chock-full of nutrients for nourishment.

For Teigen, cooking John’s Fried Chicken Wings at home gives her the ability to know exactly what’s in the flour, butter, chicken, and more that she puts in her body. Calorie restrictive it certainly isn’t, but it’s clean in that there’s nothing confusing about the contents of the dish. And one look at the model's trademark bombshell curves may say more about the benefits of that kind of transparent, ingredient-focused eating than any Twitter battle could.